Contact centers frequently have a need to communicate with individuals using different communication channels. Two common communication channels that may be used to contact an individual are voice telephone calls and Short Message Service (“SMS”) texts. Conventionally, separate communications equipment has been used by agents in a contact center for originating communications using these different channels, e.g., to originate a voice call or send a text.
The disadvantages of using separate communications equipment are numerous. Separate systems usually require separate computer processing systems to be installed. This in turn, requires additional power, space, and air conditioning requirements. Additional administration and maintenance is also required to keep separate equipment operational.
In addition, using separate communication systems requires addition agent training and agent knowledge of how to use these additional systems. This requires additional time training for each agent. Until the agent is facile in operating both systems, a period of reduced agent effectiveness may occur. Further, these systems may have different user interfaces, which further reduces operational efficiency, since different procedures may be required by agents to perform similar tasks. Further, it is likely that operational errors may occur, since different procedures may be involved. In addition, different reporting structures/formats can be expected for these different systems, which complicates monitoring and enforcement of agent performance, operational aspects, and compliance enforcement.
Integration of disparate communication systems such as voice and text is not widely common, and there has been little, if any, motivation to integrate the operation of equipment involving these particular channels of voice and text. In the past, operation of such disparate, specialized systems may have been handled by different agents or groups, but using the same agents or groups promotes operational efficiency.
There is a growing need to coordinate communications on different channels to an individual for various regulatory reasons. Various regulations by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) have indicated that an SMS text is considered a call for certain purposes, similar to a voice call. For purposes herein, sending an SMS text is considered a “text call.” Thus, some regulations limiting various aspects of voice calls from a contact center may apply to text calls. Thus, these specialized and disparate communication systems must be integrated in ways previously not anticipated. In other words, it is not merely using a common system for executing communication on different channels, but incorporating modifications in order to achieve the potential of the allowable benefits of integration. The level of integration and benefits thereof may vary based on the particular technology of the voice origination systems and the SMS text originating systems.
Therefore, there is a need to integrate disparate voice and text contact center origination technologies, so as to promote efficiency, agent usage, and compliance with current and potential future regulations in a cost effective manner. It is with these and other aspects in mind that the concepts and technologies developed herein are disclosed.